STEP THREE – CREATE UNITY IN THE GARDEN:

The woodlands are teaching me so much about landscape design. Unity is a basic principle of garden design that can be accomplished by repetition of elements in the garden.

The repetition of vertical lines, for example are created in the woodland by the tree trunks of the tall pines and maples, and the repetition of horizontal lines with drifts of sword fern.

I spend a lot of time staring out the windows toward the woodlands. One of the things I noted was the feeling of disarray that the distant vine maples were causing on the outlying landscape. The vine trees arch in inconsistent directions through the forest disrupting the unity of line. So it was determined to remove most of them. A fellow gardener on GardenersIndex shared with me some of the value of our native vine maples. Moss grows on them which can be removed and used in outdoor containers or left, I observed, as an important texture and color consistent with the cool damp atmosphere of the woodlands. The wood is hard and good for structures or fire wood. I decided to use the larger moss covered limbs to border some of the pathways in my stroll garden and to save a couple of the straight trunks for bean poles. Some of the vines have created high enough arches to frame some peek a boo views so those I won’t edit out.

Rock which mother nature has strewn across the forest floor and burred in areas that will be created for planting , is another treasure that will be gathered and used to border pathways and planting beds. They too will create unity of color and texture and are in harmony with the woodland theme.